And now, the program being exhausted, the ships returned to Plymouth. On the whole, the trip had proved eminently satisfactory. The paying-out machinery had worked well, the various engineering operations had been successfully performed, and the electrical working through the whole cable was perfect.
CHAPTER VI
THE STORM
THE “wire ships” thus additionally experienced arrived at Plymouth on June 3d, and some further arrangements were made, principally connected with the electrical department.
A week later—i. e., on Thursday, June 10th—having taken in a fresh supply of coal, the expedition again left England “with fair skies and bright prospects.” The barometer standing at 30.64, it was an auspicious start in what was declared by a consensus of nautical authorities to be the best time of the year for the Atlantic.
This prognostication was doomed to a terrible disappointment, for the voyage nearly ended in the Agamemnon “turning turtle.” She was repeatedly almost on her beam ends, the cable was partly shifted, and a large number of those on{90} board were more or less seriously injured. The load of cable made all the difference when brought into comparison with an ordinary ship, under stress of weather. It was bad enough to cruise with a dead weight forward of some 250 tons—a weight under which her planks gaped an inch apart, and her beams threatened daily to give way. But when to these evils were added the fear that in some of her heavy rolls the whole mass would slip and take the vessel’s side out, it will be seen that this precious coil was justly regarded as a standing danger—the millstone about the necks of all on board.[29] Oddly enough, owing to the fact that the Agamemnon had scant accommodation left for fuel, every one at the start was bemoaning the entire absence of breeze. There were some even, who, never having been at sea before, muttered rash hopes about meeting an Atlantic gale. Their wishes were soon to be completely realized.
In order that laying operations should be started by the two ships in mid-ocean, it was arranged that the entire fleet should meet in latitude 53° 2´ and longitude 33° 18´ as a rendezvous. As it is impossible to follow the movements of more than one ship at a time, and as the Agamemnon had the more exciting experience, we will confine our attention to her up to the date of the rendezvous.
The day after starting there was no wind; but on Saturday, June 12th, a breeze sprung up, and, with screw hoisted and fires raked out, the Agamemnon bowled along at a rare pace under{91} “royals” and studding-sails. The barometer fell fast, and squally weather coming on with the boisterous premonitory symptoms of an Atlantic gale, even those least versed in such matters could see at a glance that they were “in for it.” The following day the sky wore a wretched mist—half rain, half vapor—through which the attendant vessels loomed faintly like shadows. The gale increased; till at four in the afternoon the good ship was rushed through the foam under close-reefed topsails and foresail. That night the storm got worse, and most of the squadron gradually parted company. The ocean resembled one vast snowdrift, the whitish glare from which—reflected from the dark clouds that almost rested on the sea—had a tremendous and unnatural effect, as if the ordinary laws of nature had been reversed.
Very heavy weather continued till the following Sunday (June 20th), which ushered in as fierce a storm as ever swept over the Atlantic. The narrative of this fight of nautical science with the elements may best be continued in the words of the representative of The Times, especially as it is probably the most intensely realistic description of a storm that has ever been written by an eye-witness:
The Niagara, which had hitherto kept close, while the other smaller vessels had dropped out of sight, began to give us a very wide berth, and as darkness increased it was a case of every one for himself.
Our ship, the Agamemnon, rolling many degrees—not every one can imagine how she went at it that night—was laboring so heavily that she looked like breaking up.